


Day One

by biblionerd07



Series: Brothers Our Whole Lives [2]
Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Gen, baby Bass, baby Miles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2014-02-05
Packaged: 2018-01-11 05:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1169527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biblionerd07/pseuds/biblionerd07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miles and Bass meet on the first day of kindergarten, and they never look back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day One

**Author's Note:**

> Picturing little baby Bass and little baby Miles and their little baby friendship makes me want to explode from cuteness.

Miles walked into kindergarten without holding his mom’s hand, a feat he was quite proud of. Ben told him he couldn’t be a baby because he was already six, so he’d be older than most of the other kids. Miles was excited to finally get to go to school, because Ben talked about school like it was the best thing in the whole world, even better than climbing trees, which seemed pretty impossible to Miles. But he was still nervous. He played outside with kids from the neighborhood all the time, but he could always run home when he needed to. He had to stay at school for three _hours_ , which Ben explained was six whole episodes of cartoons, which sounded to Miles like eternity.

“Hello, there, Miles.” His teacher’s name was Mrs. Sanders and she smiled at him and made him feel a little better. “This is your seat.”

Miles slid into the hard chair, rubbing his hand across the slippery plastic. He wiggled a little against his stiff shirt. His mom had made him wear a brand-new shirt that had buttons on it. Usually he only had to wear fancy clothes on Christmas when they went to church. It made him feel important, but it was also a little uncomfortable.

“Is your shirt scratchy?”

Miles jumped a little at the sympathetic voice from his right. He turned to look at the boy. He was wearing a shirt with buttons, too, and his had stripes on it. His hair was yellow and curly, not black and straight like Miles’s.

“It’s not scratchy, it’s just…” Miles wiggled his shoulders again, unable to think of a word to describe how he felt.

“Stiff.” The boy supplied promptly. “Like you can’t move your shoulders.” The boy said his s sounds funny, like th sounds. It sounded like he was saying, “Thtiff. Like you can’t move your shoulderth.” But Miles didn’t mind. The boy’s eyes looked like the sky.

“Yeah!”

“Mine’s scratchy.” He said grumpily, raising a hand to rub his neck under his collar. “My mom made me wear it.”

“Mine too.” Miles was eager to be the same with this boy. “It’s brand new.”

“Same with my backpack!” The boy turned so Miles could see his backpack, which he was still wearing. It had Batman on it. “I got a lunchbox, too.” The boy with the sky-eyes said importantly.

“I like Batman.” Miles said.

“Do you like Batman more than Superman?”

It seemed like a really important question. Miles wanted to answer it right, but he was torn. He really did like Superman better, but he could tell the boy with the sky-eyes liked Batman. But Mom told him not to lie.

“I like Superman better.” He admitted tentatively, sure the boy would turn his sky-eyes to someone else. The boy frowned and Miles’s face fell.

“That’s okay!” Sky-eyes said, his face brightening. “You can play Superman and I’ll be Batman and we’ll kill all the bad guys.”

Miles sat up straighter in his chair. “You want to play with me?” He asked. Ben was always too busy to play with him anymore.

“Yeah.” The boy said it like it was obvious. “Batman and Superman are friends.”

Miles smiled and the other boy mirrored him. Miles liked his face when he smiled. The boy’s sky-eyes got even brighter and he had little holes in his cheeks.

“I’m Miles.” He said. People on TV shook hands when they said their names, so he put his hand out. The boy’s smile went away and he looked down.

“My name’s funny.” He confided, looking sad. “People laugh.”

“I won’t laugh.” Miles promised, more serious than he’d ever been in his life. The boy was still frowning and Miles felt desperate to make him smile again. “I pinky swear.” He stuck out his pinky.

“What’s pinky swear?” The boy asked.

“It’s the most serious promise ever.” Miles said, echoing what Ben had told him. “Look, hold my pinky with your pinky and we shake. You can never break a pinky swear or you _die_.”

The boy’s sky-eyes went wide. “You _die_?”

“You drop dead right away. My big brother said so and he knows _everything_. He’s in third grade.”

“Wow.” The boy breathed, impressed, as he should be to such a revelation.

“Okay, I pinky swore.” Miles reminded the boy. “What’s your name?”

The boy pushed his lips together before focusing on their intertwined pinkies. “Sebastian.” He said, his cheeks turning pink. Miles kind of wanted to laugh. It was a weird name, especially because it had two S’s and the boy couldn’t say them. But he’d made a pinky swear and he didn’t want to drop dead. Plus he didn’t want to laugh at the boy with the sky-eyes.

“I like it.” He declared.

“You do?” Sebastian looked up at him with those sky-eyes and Miles smiled again.

“It sounds like a pirate name. I love pirates.”

Sebastian gasped. “ _I love pirates too_.” He said. Miles gasped too. They were the same. Miles and Sebastian stayed together for the whole day, sitting together at circle time even though you could sit wherever you wanted, sharing crayons during coloring time. When Sebastian said his name during circle time, a boy laughed, and Miles glared at him.

“It’s a pirate name.” He said angrily. “It’s cool.” It earned him a smile from Sebastian and Miles decided he didn’t care if no one else wanted to be his friend, as long as Sebastian did. When everyone pulled out their snacks, Miles noticed Sebastian had Oreos. Way better than Miles’s gross celery. He’d had Oreos a few times and they were really good, but his mom didn’t buy them very often. Sebastian glanced back and forth between his Oreos and Miles’s celery. He twisted the Oreo open to reveal two halves.

“Here.” He said, holding the one with the cream out to Miles. “You can have the cream side.”

“Are you sure?” Miles asked reverently. The cream side was the best side.

“You’re my best friend.” Sebastian declared. Miles smiled big.

“You’re my best friend, too.” He said, not really sure what a best friend was but knowing if Sebastian said Miles was his than Sebastian was Miles’s. Miles offered Sebastian some celery and Sebastian politely took it, even though celery was the absolute worst, even with peanut butter on it.

“Alright, everyone, your moms and dads should be coming to pick you up soon. Raise your hand if you ride the bus.” Mrs. Sanders clapped her hands three times to get everyone’s attention. Sebastian raised his hand.

“You ride the bus?” Miles asked, awed. Sebastian was so cool. Ben said riding the bus was only for big kids.

“Yeah.” Sebastian looked scared, looking around the room. “No one else does.”

“How come your mom doesn’t come get you? My mom’s coming.”

“My mom’s at work.” Sebastian explained, putting his coloring pages into his Batman backpack. “I have to go to daycare.” Miles didn’t know anything about daycare.

“Do you like it?” He asked. Sebastian made a face.

“I hate it.” He confessed. “That’s where the big kids make fun of my name and how I talk and they push me sometimes and they always take my toys.”

“You should come to my house instead.” Miles said.

“I’m not allowed.” Sebastian answered. “I have to go to daycare right after school and if I don’t go my mom won’t know where I am and I’ll get kidnapped.”

Miles nodded understandingly. If your parents didn’t know where you were, it was really easy to get kidnapped. That’s what his mom told him all the time. Even Ben had to tell Mom where he was going.

“Maybe I can go to daycare with you.” Miles suggested. He didn’t like the thought of anyone taking Sebastian’s toys from him. Sebastian’s face lit up.

“Then we could be Batman and Superman and fight the big kids!”

“We could beat them all up!”

“Sebastian, it’s time to go to the bus now.” Mrs. Sanders said. Miles stood up with Sebastian. “Miles, your mom isn’t here yet.”

“I’m going to go to daycare with Sebastian.” Miles said. They stood close together and Sebastian reached over and held his hand. Miles complained when his mom held his hand because Ben said holding hands with your mom was for babies but Miles thought maybe holding hands with your best friend was okay. “Can you tell my mom when she gets here?” Miles asked. Mrs. Sanders laughed a little.

“Miles, you have to go home with your mom. She’d be very worried if she came and you weren’t here.”

Well, Mrs. Sanders had a point. It went back to the kidnapping thing. He pondered what to do, but then his mom walked in the door. “Mom!” He cried, still holding Sebastian’s hand and dragging him over to his mom. Sebastian got shy and hid behind him.

“Hi, sweetie.” Miles’s mom smiled at him and opened her arms for a hug, but Miles couldn’t hug her because he was still holding Sebastian’s hand and somehow he knew that he was not allowed to let go of Sebastian.

“Can I go to daycare with Sebastian?” He asked instead of giving his mom a hug. His mom looked around him to smile at Sebastian. He smiled back tentatively.

“Hello, Sebastian.” She said, holding out a hand to shake. Miles was very proud of his mom. She didn’t laugh at Sebastian’s name and he didn’t even have to tell her not to. Sebastian took a little step forward, around Miles, and shook her hand with the one that wasn’t squeezing Miles’s fingers. “My name is Lisa.”

“Hi.” Sebastian said, ducking his head shyly. “I like the dog on your sweater.”

“Do you like dogs?” Miles’s mom asked. Sebastian nodded.

“I have a dog. His name is Perry.” He turned to Miles. “Do you like dogs?”

Miles shifted his weight from foot to foot nervously. He didn’t want Sebastian to think he was a baby. “I’m afraid of dogs.” He admitted shamefully. Sebastian squeezed his hand and Miles immediately felt better.

“You can play with Perry.” He offered. “He won’t jump on you or bite you or bark at you or anything scary. I used to be scared of dogs, too, before I met Perry.”

“He’s a nice dog?” Miles clarified.

“He gives you kisses.” Sebastian giggled. “With his _tongue_.”

“Sebastian, it’s time to get on the bus.” Mrs. Sanders wasn’t smiling anymore. She didn’t like repeating her instructions.

“Mom, can I go with Sebastian?” Miles asked. He dropped Sebastian’s hand to clasp both hands in front of him. “Please please please?”

“Honey, you can’t just go to daycare. You have to sign up for daycare.”

“So…can you sign me up?” Miles wasn’t understanding the problem here.

“You have to pay for daycare.” She said. Miles’s face fell. If you had to pay for something, he usually didn’t get to do it.

“But _Moooooom_ ,” he whined. “I wanna play with Sebastian.”

“Not today, sweetie.” She said gently. “But you’ll see him tomorrow at school, and I’ll talk to his mom and see if he can come over to our house sometime, okay?”

Miles bit his lip because he didn’t want to cry in front of Sebastian. Tomorrow wasn’t good enough; he wanted to help Sebastian fight the big kids.

“Do you know my mom?” Sebastian asked. Miles’s mom smiled.

“Not yet, but I’m guessing I’m going to get to know her really well. You two look as thick as thieves already.”

“We’re not thieves!” Miles protested. “Thieves are bad guys. We’re the good guys.”

“I’m Batman.” Sebastian said solemnly. He pointed at Miles. “He’s Superman.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, my mistake.” Miles’s mom never made fun of him when he played pretend. “But Batman’s going to miss the bus if he doesn’t go soon.”

Sebastian’s shoulders slumped and Miles looked at him sadly. “Sorry I can’t help you fight the big kids.” Miles said.

“It’s okay. I’ll just hide from them.”

Miles thought this was all very cruel. He finally met his best friend and now he didn’t even get to see him until tomorrow and tomorrow was a really long time away.  
Sebastian was halfway out the door with one of the recess teachers and Miles’s mom was talking to Mrs. Sanders when Miles had an idea. “Sebastian!” He called. Sebastian turned around right away. Miles ran over to him.

“You can hit the big kids with this.” He said, pushing a yo-yo into Sebastian’s hands. Sebastian’s sky-eyes went wide and he giggled.

“This is perfect!” He was smiling at Miles and it made Miles happy. “I’ll bring it back tomorrow.”

“You can keep it,” Miles said with a shrug. “I can’t get it to go back up.”

Sebastian looped the string over his finger and deftly threw the yo-yo down and then back up again while Miles watched, fascinated.

“I’ll teach you.” Sebastian promised.

“Time to get to the bus.” The recess teacher said. Miles watched Sebastian all the way down the hall. Just before he turned to go out the big doors, he turned around and waved at Miles, smiling. Miles smiled and waved back.

“I’m glad you made a new friend.” Miles’s mom said in the car on the way home. “I got his phone number from Mrs. Sanders so I can call his mom tonight.” Miles cheered from his seat in the back of the car. He talked about Sebastian all day, telling his dad and Ben at dinner about sharing the Oreo. Ben whistled (a newly acquired skill he showed off as much as possible, to Miles’s eternal frustration because he couldn’t figure out how to do it).

“He gave you the cream side?” Ben said, impressed. Miles nodded smugly. _Ben_ didn’t have a best friend who gave him the cream side of an Oreo. Miles bounced excitedly around his mom after dinner as she picked up the phone to call Sebastian’s house.

“Hello, is this Gail Monroe?” Miles heard his mom ask. He hovered around her knees anxiously. “I’m Lisa Matheson, Miles’s mom—our sons met in school today.” She paused and laughed. “Yes, Miles has been talking about Sebastian all day, too.” She smiled down at Miles, ruffling his hair. “We were wondering if Sebastian could come over tomorrow after school.” She laughed again. Sebastian’s mom must have been funny. “I know what you mean. They may start a coup if we don’t let them play soon.”

Miles quickly grew bored of the grownup chatter and wandered away to see if he could sneak another cookie. His dad was in the kitchen doing the dishes and knew just what Miles was after. “Looking for cookies?” He asked. Miles tried to look perfectly innocent, opening his eyes wide like Ben had taught him.

“Who, me?” He asked, mimicking his favorite little nursery rhyme about stealing cookies from the cookie jar. His dad laughed.

“Fine, but only one.” He said. “And don’t tell Mom.”

“Pinky swear.” Miles said solemnly.

“So, is your friend coming over tomorrow?” His dad asked as Miles happily ate his contraband. Miles swallowed the bite in his mouth because mom said not to talk with his mouth full.

“Sebastian!” He crowed. He’d momentarily forgotten his best friend in his cookie-craze and felt guilty. “Mom’s on the phone with his mom. I hope he doesn’t have to go to daycare tomorrow. The big kids are mean at daycare.”

Miles’s dad frowned. “Well, if the big kids are picking on him I hope he doesn’t have to go, either.” Miles’s dad was good at agreeing with him.

“It’s ‘cause he has a funny name.” Miles explained around another bite of cookie, forgetting about not talking with his mouth full. “And he talks funny.”

“Talks funny how?”

“Like thith.” Miles imitated.

“That’s called a lisp.” His dad told him. “I’m glad you’re still his friend anyway.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Miles asked, confused. “He’s so _awesome_.” Ben had taught him the word awesome and he tried to use it as much as possible. “He has a Batman backpack and a lunchbox and he shared his Oreos with me and he can yo-yo and he rides the bus like a big kid and his eyes look like the sky.”

Miles’s dad tried hard not to laugh, because he didn’t like laughing at his kids unless they were trying to be funny, but the criteria for being awesome in the eyes of a six-year-old was pretty amusing.

“His eyes look like the sky?” He asked.

“Yeah, they’re blue, not like ours. How come his eyes are blue but mine are brown?”

“People have different colored eyes.” Miles’s dad said with a shrug. He knew it had to do with genetics, and that was about all he knew. He was a mechanic, not a scientist. He hadn’t even graduated from high school. Even if he did know, it wasn’t like he could explain it to Miles. Luckily, Miles accepted his answer without question, and was distracted by his mom coming into the room. He quickly crammed the rest of his cookie in his mouth. She gave him a look like she’d totally seen that but was choosing to ignore it. Miles had a nice mom.

“Well, Sebastian’s mom said he could come home with us tomorrow after school instead of going to daycare.” She said with a smile.

“Sebastian gets to come to my _house_?” Miles asked excitedly. His parents both laughed at his enthusiasm.

“He sure does, and he gets to stay for dinner, too.”

“This is awesome!” Miles screeched. He jumped off the barstool he’d taken so long to climb onto. “I’m gonna get all my toys ready!”

“Miles, you have an hour until your bath!” His mom called after him.

“But Mom, I gotta get ready for Sebastian to come over!” His stuck out his lower lip. Ben had taught him the puppy dog face last week in preparation for kindergarten in case he got in trouble and needed his teacher to be nice to him.

“One hour, mister. You can finish getting ready in the morning.”

Miles grumbled the rest of the way up the stairs but didn’t argue because that was back talking and back talking wasn’t allowed. He had to be good or his mom might change her mind and not let Sebastian come over. He endured his bath stoically and didn’t try to bargain to stay up later. His mom was a little amazed and even teased him about it a little.

“I gotta go to sleep.” He explained like it was obvious. “Then I can wake up and it will be tomorrow so I can go to school and Sebastian can come over.” It was a trick Ben had taught him, to his parents’ chagrin, for Christmas—if you went to bed earlier, it was Christmas morning earlier. Miles figured it would work just as well to see his best friend.

He and Sebastian played pirates at school the next day and Sebastian shared his snack again—string cheese this time. Miles had never seen string cheese and couldn’t stop giggling at the way it shredded off into little bits. They both happily forgot Miles’s carrots. But when his mom came and picked the boys up and it was time to walk into the house, Miles was suddenly shy. What if Sebastian didn’t like Miles’s toys? What if he wanted to go home? What if daycare with the mean big kids was better than Miles’s house? His mom gently pushed him inside, Sebastian following, and Miles shrugged. Ben taught him to act like you didn’t care if someone thought you were cool or not.

“This is my house.” He said. He had spread Army men throughout the living room so they were ready to be played with, but he worried Sebastian wouldn’t want to play Army men.

“Whoa, are those your Army guys?” Sebastian asked. Miles’s heart picked up at the awe in Sebastian’s voice.

“Yeah, I set them up all by myself.” He bragged. Sebastian gave him an impressed look and dropped to his knees on the floor.

“Which ones are the good guys?” He asked. Sebastian was always very concerned about who the good guys were and didn’t like when he got stuck being the bad guy. Miles joined him on the carpet and they were quickly engrossed in playing Army men. After they got tired of that, Sebastian tried to teach Miles how to yo-yo. He got it a few times and Sebastian cheered for him with the enthusiasm that could only be expressed by your very best friend in the whole world.

“You must be Sebastian.” Miles’s dad said importantly when he got home from work. Miles loved the way his dad had grease all over him when he came home. Sebastian’s eyes were wide with respect. He was a grownup and he was allowed to be that dirty? He nodded, hiding slightly behind Miles. Sebastian was shy around grownups.

“This is my dad.” Miles said proudly.

“I hear you’re Miles’s best friend.” The title gave Sebastian more confidence. He took a step forward and Miles was proud of him for being brave.

“Yeah.” Sebastian said, brave enough to step forward but not quite enough to say a whole sentence. He looked down at his socks. They had Batman on them, too.

“Well, I’m glad. Miles needs a best friend to boss him around.”

Sebastian’s head finally came up. He was grinning, showing off the little holes in his cheeks Miles’s dad had told him were called _dimples_. Miles made a noise of protest. “Ben already bosses me around!” He fumed.

“It’s okay.” Sebastian said. “You can boss me around, too.” He offered loyally. Miles’s dad laughed and Miles relaxed. He was just teasing. The real test, though, was dinner, because Sebastian would meet Ben when he got home from soccer practice. Ben was Miles’s big brother and as such had to approve every friendship Miles had. So far this was a task that had been easy, because Miles hadn’t really had any friends. But Miles knew instinctively if Ben didn’t like Sebastian, they couldn’t be best friends. He was more nervous than when he'd gone to kindergarten alone yesterday.

“What’s your name?” Ben asked. Miles frowned at him. Miles had already told him Sebastian’s name. Sebastian looked at Miles. He didn’t like saying his name. He said the S wrong and it was a funny name anyway. Ben was a big kid. Sebastian hadn’t met a big kid yet who hadn’t teased him for his lisp and his weird name. Miles took Sebastian’s hand under the table. For some reason he knew Ben just wanted to hear Sebastian say it.

“Sebastian.” He finally whispered, looking at the table. He almost got the S right. Miles squeezed his hand and whispered, “Good job.”

Ben pondered seriously. Miles shot him a puppy dog look for good measure. Ben had to like Sebastian.

“That’s a pretty cool name.” Ben said. Miles smiled. Best friends! Sebastian looked up quickly.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s a fancy name, like a knight.”

“Like night?” Sebastian asked, nose wrinkled in confusion.

“A knight, you know, who fights with swords and wears a suit of armor and rides a big horse and saves the princess?” Miles broke in. Their mom was pretty fond of fairy tales and there were always princesses that needed saving. Sebastian shrugged.

“You don’t what a knight is?” Ben asked incredulously. Sebastian looked appropriately humiliated and Miles felt bad. He’d been so excited when Ben had said he liked his name.

“After we finish dinner, Mom will read us a book with knights in it.” He promised.

“My mom reads me books, too.” Sebastian said, trying to save face. “But mostly Peter Pan and Dr. Seuss. And me and my dad look at Batman comics.”

“Batman’s cool.” Ben allowed. Miles nodded. Sebastian looked relieved. No one made fun of his name or his lisp and everyone agreed Batman was cool. He could handle that.

From that day on, Miles and Sebastian were inseparable. Sebastian still had to go to daycare after school most days, but they stuck together at school and got to play all day on Saturdays and Sundays. Miles got to meet Perry the dog and agreed he was a really nice dog. Miles wasn’t afraid of Perry and he and Sebastian spent many afternoons trying to teach Perry tricks like rolling over and shaking hands. It never worked, because Perry got too excited when he saw the treats they were hiding and ended up peeing. The three of them were collectively banished to the backyard.

One night, on one of their countless sleepovers, Ben was reading to them out of a book about dog training while they were cuddled together in Miles’s bed. Ben didn’t love sharing a room with his little brother, but he liked reading out loud so he didn’t mind when he was tasked with bedtime story duty. He got to a sentence that mentioned man’s best friend.

“What’s man’s best friend?” Miles interrupted. Sebastian never interrupted Ben because Ben hated being interrupted and Sebastian was still too afraid of Ben to do it. (He would quickly grow out of this fear and Ben would miss it.)

“Dogs. That’s what people say, dogs are man’s best friend.”

“But Perry’s not my best friend.” Sebastian piped up. He’d join in once Miles did the initial interrupting, mostly because Sebastian couldn’t stay quiet for long, even when he was being shy around grownups. “Miles is my best friend!”

“Yeah, Perry’s cool, but Sebastian’s my best friend!”

They giggled at each other and Ben rolled his eyes. Little kids could be so dumb and annoying. He was really too old to be hanging out with these babies.

“It’s just an expression.” He said snootily, because he knew words like _expression_ and they didn’t. But they weren’t listening to him anymore, to his great exasperation. They were whispering and giggling together, hiding under the blanket. Just the tips of Sebastian’s curls were poking out. Ben snapped the dog training book shut, irritated, and left in a huff to read a _real_ book for _real_ readers where no one would interrupt him with dumb questions.

When Miles’s mom went in to check on them a few hours later, they were lost in the deep sleep only children could find. She tip-toed away and back with her camera. She couldn’t resist. They were just too adorable, both slack-jawed and drooling, but their arms around one another, Sebastian’s blond curls mingling with Miles’s dark strands. For years to come, both boys would keep a framed copy of the photo in their bedrooms, refusing to heed the advice or teasing of other friends and many relatives.

“He’s my best friend.” Either boy would counter. “I don’t care if people think it’s weird.”


End file.
